Ventura
County
Biographies
MRS. MIRIAM (GARRISON) DAVIS
A pioneer of Santa Paula, Mrs.
Miriam (Garrison) Davis is beloved by the residents of this city and has here
made her home for forty-eight years, witnessing a notable change in the aspect
of the locality during that period. She
was born in San Francisco and pursued her education in the schools of that
city. Her father, Lewis Butts Garrison,
was at one time sheriff of San Francisco County. With ox-team and covered wagon he made the
overland journey to California in the gold rush of 1849 and remained in the
state until his death in San Francisco.
He married Mary McNary, a native of Elizabethtown, Essex County, New
York, and of Scotch ancestry. Early in
the decade of the ‘50s she made the trip to California by the Isthmus route and
became the wife of Lewis Butts Garrison in 1862. She has also passed away. Of her children, two survive: Mrs. Davis; and Miss Carrie Garrison, of Los
Angeles, whose service in the office of the county recorder have covered more
than a quarter of a century.
On September 1, 1884, Miriam
Garrison became the wife of Frank Elwell Davis, who
was born in Derby Line, Orleans County, Vermont, May
12, 1857. He was graduated from Vermont
Academy at Newport in 1873 and soon afterward sought the opportunities of the
west. Locating in San Francisco, he
handled refined oil, which he sold to the trade there until 1884, when he
removed to Santa Paula. In association
with I. E. Blake, he organized the Mission Transfer Oil Company, of which Mr.
Davis became president and general manager.
This company laid the first pipeline for the transfer of oil from the
Newhall fields to Ventura. Mr. Davis was
one of the chief factors in the development of the oil business in the Santa
Clara Valley of the south, the operations of his company in this valley being
conducted on the old Mission ranch, where the growth of the industry was
greatly stimulated through his efforts.
In 1884 the success of this company brought other oil men to the valley
and among them were Messrs. Hardison and Stewart, who afterward played so
important a part in the development of Ventura County. The Mission Transfer Oil Company was sold to
the Union Oil Company in 1885 and for many years thereafter Mr. Davis was
identified with other oil concerns, as well as with ranching, commercial and
banking interests. He was a stockholder of
the Limoneira Company, and a director of the First National Bank of Santa
Paula, which he aided in founding. He
served as president of the Ventura Mill & Lumber Company and was one of the
owners of the Santa Paula Horse & Cattle Company. He was an expert judge of
horses and owned the famous pacer, “Waldo J.”
He was one of the organizers of the Santa Paula Driving Park Association
and a moving spirit in many projects and enterprises which proved of benefit to
his community. For nine years he was a
supervisor of Ventura County and served as chairman of the board during four
years of that period. He belonged to the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows; to Santa Paula Lodge, No. 291, F. & A.
M., of which he was a past master; the York and Scottish Rite
bodies of Masons; the Mystic Shrine; and was a past patron of Santa Paula
Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star.
His religious affiliation was with the Universalist Church, to which he
gave generous support, as he did to all worthy benevolent or charitable
objects. He passed away at Santa Paula,
November 22, 1920, at the age of sixty-four years. His death removed from Ventura County one of
her most substantial and highly esteemed citizens and a man whose kindly nature
had won for him a secure place in the hearts and affections of his many
friends.
Mr. and Mrs. Davis were the parents
of three sons, of whom Walter E., a veteran of the World War, is the only one
now living. He is connected with the
Hunt Brothers Packing Company and resides in San Jose, California. Frank Garrison also fought for his country,
serving as corporal of his company. A
local paper said of him: “It was at the
battle in the Argonne Forest, while in action, that on September 28, 1918, this
hero of the American defense was pierced by a German machine gun bullet and
soon after became one of the immortals of the World War. He lies in the Argonne Cemetery, probably the
most beautiful resting place of war-fallen patriots, now being marked by marble
monuments erected by the American nation, and carpeted by the time celebrated
wild flower coverings of the Argonne field.
Corporal Frank Davis was as popular with his comrades over in France as
he was with his companions here. He left
Santa Paula, September 5, 1917, went direct to Camp Lewis, and soon from there
to France, where he was in continuous action until shot on September 28,
1918. As a Santa Paula youth everybody
loved him. He became a teacher in the
Los Angeles Business College when in 1915 Hon. Roger Edwards took him to
Sacramento as his private secretary, where he served with faithfulness and
ability.” In the same article the
following tribute was paid to the third son:
“We cannot say that his brother, Dudley Lewis Davis, paid any less
supreme sacrifice. Lieutenant Dudley L.
Davis enlisted at Fort McDowell in San Francisco, April 21, 1918. He went direct to Edgewood Arsenal,
Baltimore, and became engaged in chemical warfare explosives and deadly gas
manufacture. In a statement made since
the War, Colonel H. Walker, chief at the gas production headquarters, in an
isolated region in Maryland known as the Edgewood Arsenal, said that casualties
among the enlisted men working at that plant could not be equaled on the
battlefields of France. Lieutenant
Dudley L. Davis became ill from the effect of gas poison, and returned to his
home, where he passed away. His remains
rest in the beautiful Santa Paula Cemetery.”
Both Frank G. and Dudley L. Davis were Masons, the latter belonging to
the Scottish Rite bodies and to the Shrine. He was a capable young businessman and the
first field manager of the Lima Bean Growers Association of Oxnard, California.
The mother of these fine sons was
long active in civic, social and fraternal affairs but now lives quietly in the
desirable home erected more than twenty years ago and adjoining the family home
of more than forty years ago. Mrs. Davis
attends the various lectures and meetings of the Ebell Club of Santa Paula, in
which she has a life membership, but is no longer active in its affairs. She is one of the Daughters of the American
Revolution and served for three terms as district deputy of the Eastern Star,
of which she is also a past matron. Few
residents of Santa Paula have so wide an acquaintance and no one stands higher
in the esteem of its citizens than does Mrs. Davis, who has fulfilled every
duty and obligation in life to the best of her ability, manifesting those
attributes which grace her sex.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 305-308, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN
NUGGET'S VENTURA
BIOGRAPHIES